TThis is likely to be one of the most dramatic years in recent history. So much so, that Jada Pinkett Smith, sitting across from her husband Will Smith, to discuss a romantic relationship she had with musician August Alsina while they were married, is unlikely to be in the top 10 most surreal moments.
The couple sincerely discussed their relationship on their Red Table Talk web series last week, a conversation that was viewed by more than 15 million viewers in the first 24 hours. In addition to shedding light on the inner workings of the Pinkett-Smith couple and making “tangle” a strong contender for the word of the year from the Oxford English Dictionary, the 13-minute clip covered the intrusion of reality in our everyday lives.
Once upon a time, relaying your personal affairs to strangers looking across the screen was characterized as a desperate and highly maligned shortcut to the success of those who couldn’t do otherwise. I clearly remember the public disdain for those who “ended up” in Big Brother, they said with a sigh as if participating was the last resort. The prevailing belief was that only a particular type of attention seeker would want to document every worldly movement. Fast forward a decade or so, and it’s no longer considered cheap or rude, but something we do willingly, often almost daily online. The stigma of excess reality television has ultimately evaporated due to social media; Research shows that three times as many kids ages 8 to 12 want to be YouTubers as astronauts. None of us is above, especially celebrities.
In many ways, social media is the new reality show. Influencers receive a similar disregard for “famous for being famous” that was once directed at “wannabes” who participated in reality shows. Now, however, to whatever degree we participate, most of us are content creators and consumers. We document, edit and load our daily lives for the consumption of others; sometimes for people we don’t know at all. Celebrities, influencers, and everyone else, too, can now and are willing to do the same from the comfort of their own homes, but without fear of an issue they haven’t signed.
Pinkett Smith would have had to use his best two-piece expression for a Diane Sawyer special to explain his actions, but now he can simply grill on his own platform, on his own terms. This in part, it has been argued, explains the slow death of the celebrity profile; Famous faces are no longer forced to tell their stories to journalists, as they can tell it themselves on live Instagram, or make amends through an apology captured through the now infamous iPhone Notes app. In the case of the Pinkett Smiths, they tackled the rumors by hosting their own reality-style Red Table Talk meeting, immediately setting a new record for the most visits in 24 hours for a Facebook Watch broadcast. They were able to set the record straight as they saw fit, and reap the financial benefits of doing so.
It could be argued that the compulsion to disclose, and in as much detail, boils down to the couple being as famous as they are, but that would ignore a much broader trend. We are actively monitored and invite cameras to our homes daily to capture some of our most private moments through our own series of MTV cribs. It has long been our new normal; The difference is that, unlike reality shows, cameras never stop working and stations never end. Once Keeping Up With the Kardashians wraps up throughout the year, we can see the consequences continue on Twitter.
The symbiotic relationship between reality shows and social media is only growing and will shape the future of the genre more and more. Earlier this month, a dispute erupted between two TikTok “collaboration houses” (Los Angeles-based mansions where the T ZTikkers gen live and collaborate with each other to create content), called Sway House and Hype House, respectively. Their altercation took place on every conceivable social media platform and culminated in a final face-to-face confrontation, dubbed “TikTokalypse”. The ridiculous scenes were plucked from a reality show script, with an immersive twist in real time.
This has not been lost on eagle-eyed producers: The New York Times recently reported that “in recent months, all of the great TikTok collectives have already taken steps to search for a possible reality show.” Reality TV blurred the line between reality and entertainment a long time ago; Social media will only further eliminate these evaporating distinctions. How’s that for getting tangled up?
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